


The Eyes of an Ornament

by SkylerABlack



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-27 22:26:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21126248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkylerABlack/pseuds/SkylerABlack
Summary: 24 December 1981. Petunia Dursley is putting the final touches on the Christmas tree when an ornament catches her eyes and reminds her of someone she once loved and lost.





	The Eyes of an Ornament

**Author's Note:**

  * For [meditationsinemergencies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/meditationsinemergencies/gifts).

> I started writing something else and this flew out of me. I hope you like it.

She looked at the decorations hanging from the tree in the living room and sighed. Everything was exactly as it should be. The presents from Father Christmas were perfectly wrapped under the tree. Each bow was tied in the most beautiful and ornate knots. The fairy lights sparkled around the sitting room casting long shadows along the wall of the old house. 

Petunia Dursley stepped closer to the tree towards the one decoration that kept catching her eye. It swayed back and forth, as if some invisible wind was forcing it to and fro. Her thin fingers reached towards it, steadying the ornament and removing it carefully from the tree. It was old and dainty. She didn’t even know why she still had it in the box of her parents’ old things. She didn’t even know why she still hung it front and center every year since they died. The small black and white ornament was of a cat with bright green eyes. Eyes she hadn’t seen anything like for over four years. 

Sometimes she’d look into the mirror before bed, smoothing moisturizer over the small crows feet she started noticing growing more prominent, and try to find the eyes she wouldn’t ever admit she missed. She’d smile and see the small differences between her and the face she was so horrible to. She’d turn her head left and right and see their cheekbones had been the same. She’d see that their ears were the same shape. However hard she looked, she’d see more similarities than differences in their bodies than she ever noticed before. 

The eyes of the ornament looked back at her. Mocking her. Making her remember the last time she had seen the person with eyes that were so eerily similar. How was it possible that this inconsequential item had the exact same eyes as her sister? Was it the magic? Was it watching her? Shaming her for how she treated the one person in her life that she thought she could never push away until it was too late? 

She’d never admit it to anyone. Hell, she hardly admitted it to herself on a regular day. But the holidays held a sentimentality and her sister was dead. Her baby sister was gone and left Petunia to face the world completely on her own with a little boy that looked everything like that world—_ that Potter _—that magical world that took her away from her. Left her with a boy that had exactly her sister’s eyes. Eyes that she’d never see sparkling with laughter or anger ever again. 

She was all alone. Her parents died years ago in a car accident. Her sister was … murdered. Murdered by a world that she’d never understand. A world they would never allow her to understand. She was an orphan. A 25 year old woman with no family. And right now, with her husband and son upstairs in bed sleeping, she allowed herself a small amount of longing. Allowed herself to miss the sister she never gave another chance. Allowed herself to place the ornament on the table before silently taking her nephew out of his cot under the stairs (what Vernon didn’t know wouldn’t kill him) and hold him to her chest. 

He slowly woke up, yawning with a ferocity that made her smile. His bright green eyes locked against her hazel ones. He blinked, taking in her whole face before giggling and reaching a chubby hand up towards her mouth. Without thinking, Petunia grasped his hand in hers and kissed his wrist lightly before placing another timid kiss against his forehead. Her cheeks were suddenly wet with tears as she felt Harry rest his head against her chest once more and sighed deeply. He felt happy. Content in her arms. Arms that she never allowed him to be in during the daytime. Arms she denied him when Vernon and Dudley were around. It was only in the quiet moments. The moments when she was allowed to miss and grieve her sister privately. Allowed to be angry at the world that took her away. 

Petunia sat down with Harry still in her arms. She reached towards the ornament that she left on the table and positioned Harry so he could see it dangling from her finger. His eyes danced with delight back and forth watching the cat swing in the air. 

‘Toon-ey,’ he whispered and reached towards the ornament. ‘Toon-ey! Where Toon-ey?’ Petunia looked down at her nephew with her eyebrows furrowed. 

‘Me? Do you mean me, Harry?’ Harry turned his head towards her and frowned, looking back towards the swinging cat and said a bit louder, ‘No! Toon-ey!’ 

His hands grasped the cat and smiled down at it. Kissing its face and staring at it like it was the best thing on earth. ‘Toon-ey,’ he whispered before holding it to his cheek. ‘Cat. Toon-ey. Cat.’ Harry turned his face towards Petunia and smiled up at her. Of course. The cat was named Tooney. Their cat was named Tooney. Her sister’s nickname for her when they were kids. 

The green eyes stared at her. The eyes that once mischievously looked over at her when they were kids on a swing set and Lily flew through the air and landed lightly on her feet. Eyes that shone brightly when a woman showed up at their doorstep in the middle of March, ten years before, to tell an eleven year old Lily that she was a witch. Eyes that widened, stunned, that their favorite person in the world called them a freak. Eyes that rolled in disgust and frustration for years afterwards when the two sisters stopped accepting each other. Eyes that closed permanently without forgiveness, without protection, without knowing how sorry Petunia was, without knowing that she never really meant it, without knowing that her jealousy was too strong, too much, without knowing how much her sister loved her but never got the words right. Never got to say that she was sorry. Sorry for hurting her continually over the years. Sorry for pushing her away. Sorry for never accepting the love and forgiveness Lily extended time and time again until one day the phone stopped ringing and letters stopped being written. Sorry that the day came when Lily wouldn’t want her around anymore. 

The eyes drank her in. How dare people try to snuff her sister out of this world? How dare those people take her baby sister away from her? How dare those goddamn wizards do that to her? She would live on. Live on in this little boy with his wild hair and those bright eyes. She wouldn’t let anything happen to him. He wouldn’t be taken away from her like her sister was. She rubbed her finger lightly against Harry’s cheek while tears flowed down her cheeks. Nothing would happen to him. She didn’t care if he was a wizard, she wouldn’t let them get to him like they got to Lily. No matter what, she could manage that. She’d hide him away. Far away. That world was no place for a child. No place for anyone. How couldn’t they see that? Her sister. Her baby sister … gone. 

Harry reached out with his free hand, the other still clasping around the cat, and pressed his fingers against her cheek. Watching his hand get wet and looking questioningly at Petunia, ‘Toon-ey?’ She gasped, her body racked with the loss. Weighted down by never being able to say sorry, but knowing she could do one thing to ensure Lily didn’t die for nothing. She’d make damn sure. Reaching for the hand that held the ornament, Petunia turned it over in Harry’s hand where the words ‘Lily 1967’ were written. Brushing her thumb against the words, she stared into Harry’s bright green eyes and promising. 

‘That’s right, Harry. Toon-ey is right here.’


End file.
